Oh What A Time... - #61 Olympics (Part 1)

Episode Date: August 11, 2024

Ready, set.. and go for this week’s episode which is on: The Olympics. We’ll be chatting about the ancient Olympics, McDonalds infamous mid-80s marketing campaign for the Los Angeles Olympics and a certain Welsh Olympian known as ‘the human torpedo’. And the world has a new BEST podcast feature: The Museum of Failure. What can we put in it alongside Woolworths, the zeppelin and betamax? Please present your exhibits to: [e-mail] If you're impatient and want both parts in one lovely go next time plus a whole lot more(!), why not treat yourself and become an Oh What A Time: FULL TIMER? In exchange for your £4.99 per month to support the show, you'll get: - two bonus episodes every month! - ad-free listening - episodes a week ahead of everyone else - And first dibs on any live show tickets Subscriptions are available via AnotherSlice, Apple and Spotify. For all the links head to: ohwhatatime.com You can also follow us on:  X (formerly Twitter) at @ohwhatatimepod And Instagram at @ohwhatatimepod Aaannnd if you like it, why not drop us a review in your podcast app of choice? Thank you to Dan Evans for the artwork (idrawforfood.co.uk). Chris, Elis and Tom x Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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From football to basketball and hockey to baseball, whatever the moment, it's never ordinary at Bet365. Must be 19 or older, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you or someone you know has concerns about gambling, visit Connects Ontario.CA. Hello and welcome to O. What's the Time, the history podcast that tries to decide if the past was a more interesting time in the Gree Fosbury Flop age. Oh yes. You ever seen that? People have done the Pre-Fosbury Flop high jump? It's hilarious. The Osizzer. But the thing with the th-T-Tosbury flop, which I have done quite recently,osbury flop, which I have done quite recently, I thought that the Fosbury was just destroying records.

And the first time he did it, people were like, okay, we've been really thick for a long time. We should have been doing that. That makes much sense. He wasn't breaking it by very much. But prior to Fosbury, the blok, the blok, the blok, the blok, the blok, the blok, the blok, the blok, the blok, the blok, the blok, the blok, the blok. I was, the bluck, was, was, was just, was just, was just, was just, was just, was just, was just, was just, was just, was just, was just, was just to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the f. the f. the f. the f. the f. the f. the f. to to to to to to to to to to to to the fos. I was just, was just, was just, was just, was just, was just just just. I was just just just. Brosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosbosk, was just, was just, was just, was just, was just, the bloke invented it. They were sort of jumping, they were just jumping over it like a kid would at primary school sports tea, but because they were a Olympic athletes achieving insane heights. There's also there's no crash mat in those early scissorins that I've seen. They're having to land on their feet, which makes the introduction of the Fosbury flop it gives it an extra dimension, doesn't it? I think there was a bloke, I think he might have been from New Zealand and he tried to revolutionise the long jump. Right.

And his, his alternate version of the long jump was outlawed. They said you can't do this because he was basically doing a kind of forward summer salt. And it was very effective. They were like, like, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, like, I, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, I th. th. th. thi, I thi, I thi, I thi, I thi, I th. th. th. th. th. And, I th. And, I, and he, and he, and he, and he, and he, and he, and he, and he, and he, and he, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. landing in the sand and it was very effective they were like people are going to break their necks if you do that you have to. We cannot sanction this. So you would have been watching it back then and people would have had different types of jump that they were doing each time. I'd have to look into it but I think by the 60s before Dick Fosbury I think the scissor jump was the one that people people people people people people people.... they were. they were. they. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. their. their. their th. they. the, their thi. their the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, and, the, and, the, their, their, their, their, their, their, and, their, and, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th have to look into it but I think by the 60s before Dick Fosbury I think the scissor jump was the one that people were using. Once again bring back a time when maybe it had become this scissor jump as you say but a point where you have no idea what style of jump someone's going for as they run up is also a thing that surely is now

lacking from the Olympics. Yeah I'm remember the competition saying, yeah, what is she going to do? What is she going to go for here? Occasionally, I occasionally make bad decisions when I'm under pressure and a few times I was given auditions to do stand-up for really big stand-up TV shows, and I would often just go mad as I walked to the microphone and rather than doing the set that had served me so well in the clubs that had got me the audition in the first place, as I was walking to the microphone I think to myself I'm just going to do some new material. I was going to make an observation I've never made out loud before about sort of rice when you're eating Chinese food and then I would make the observation people like what the hell is that I would look like a person making an observation for the first the first first first first first first first first first first first first the first the first the first the first the first the first the first the first the the the the to to to to the to to the to to to to the to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to I I I I I I was I was I was I was I I was I was I was I I I I I was I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I was I was I was I was I was I was I was I was I was I was I was I'm I'm I was the the the the the the thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the observation for the first time and then I would have to very, very awkwardly gear change into my prepared material, by which point I'd lost all authority and the gig would go badly and I wouldn't get the show.

So if you're in the Olympics running up to do the high jump, you'd freestyle a new of high jump. Yeah, when you're four pieces from the bar, you'd think to yourself I'm going to do something new now at the Olympics, at the 1968 Olympics. You pulled your trousers down around your ankles. Yeah. You're flapping your arms like a bird. And as you're hitting the pole, you're thinking, what am I doing? The adrenaline will get me through. Isn't that how birds aren't to fly adrenaline? Because they're scared cats to cats to don't know. Oh, God. Well, Chris, you are quite right to bring up the idea of the fozby flop and better times because today's episode is on that very subject, isn't it? This week we're going to be looking at the Olympics, ancient, the middle Times and Modern. Spoke like a true historian there, the Middle Times.

Exactly. So what are you specialising? Also the Middle Biddleys, not not mega-old and not modern. The Middle Times. Do you mean the Middle Age? No, the Middle Times. I hope that helps. Middle bits of history. Today we're looking at the ancient Olympics, we're looking at McDonald's infamous Olympic promotion. We're looking at a Welshman known as the human torpedo. So this should be a fun episode. Before we crack into it, should we do a little bit of correspondence from our lovely, lovely listeners?

El, I think you've got something this week, haven't you? Yes. Hello, gents, this has got a very promising subject. Great. Chris was right about the movies. Oh great here we go. It doesn't happen very often. Yeah. Hello gents your pick and mix episode this week has proved the old adage that even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while. I've never heard that phrase. Have you heard that phrase? That's incredible. It's our little blind squirrel. Chris was right about movies making most of their money from concession sales. It would really hurt me, Chris, if people were coming up with old adages like that about my contributions to this podcast.

You're a blind squirrel who every nower then stumbles upon an equal. Whereas Ellis and I are fully sighted squirrelirrels, we've got too many nuts, surrounded by nuts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, peer-reviewed nuts. Exactly, yeah. I used to work as a projectionist at a movie theatre in high school in university. Theatre chains, which are separate from movie studios and production companies

take a small percentage of the ticket sales with the majority going to the movie distributors. Since they make so little from tickets, that's why they mark up the candy, soda and popcorn so much. Chris, you're in the clear this week. Love the show, keep up the good work, cheers, just in bedard. I can't take all the credit though, can I? Because I think I doubted it myself. I said I'd heard this, but I'm not sure it's true. But however, you know, I presented the theory, so... Chris, this is a rare opportunity for you to. Yeah, I know. Don't go with, I doubt, don't start sort of questioning yourself. The blind, the blind school has found a nut and he's not sure it's quite to his taste. But also, we talked about Woolworths wall wall wall wall wall wall wall wall wall wall wall wall wall wall wall wall wall wall wall wall wall wall wall w wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo wo. But also, we talked about Woolworths last week and how that, you know, if Warrows had introduced films, it might have saved their business model, which as we established was purely based on

Pick and Mix. They were cinemas without the films. Pick and Mix and pencil cases and garden furniture and CD singles. Absolutely mad shop. I've got an idea, I'm going to picture you guys now that I've just had. It's called the Museum of Things that Don't Exist anymore, and it's a big experiential museum. You walk in, first of all, you get a high street. There's Wallworths, you can walk in Wallwurst, Rambalows. Yes. You need different zones. Your living room, and there's a BetaMax player there. That is a good idea. Cathode Ray, TV.

Well, at the St Fagans National Museum of Welsh Life, which is a big folk museum, a few miles north of Cardiff, they've got a row of terraced houses that I think came from. Yeah, well, so what the museum is, they will take a great example of, I don't know, like a Shepherds cottage from Caravan from the 1850s and they'll move it down to the site brick by brick. Yeah, so they'll number all the bricks and then they'll rebuild it. So they've just rebuilt one of my favorite pubs in Cardiff, which is a Victorian Dockers pub. So you can have a pint there. So they've transplanted the whole thing. That's great. It's the biggest folk museum of its kind in Europe I think. Anyway, there's sort of farmhouses from the 1600s but filled with the furniture of the time.

And then there's the Riedecar cottages which I think came from Murtha. So they've got a row of cottages, terrace cottages, miners' cottages which they've rebuilt and it's 1805, 1855, 1955 and 1985. Oh. And the 1985 one has got the first microwave you will remember. Wow. And it's got the tell you had as a kid and it's got a magazine rack full of old copies of the Radio Times and stuff. It's really, it's really eerie because you walk in and it's basically your grandmother's house.

Yeah, it's great. There's another music, there's a museum in London called Jeffrey Museum. You've heard of that, which is a museum of the home, which is in East London, but similarly. No, I've not been there. It's a very long, beautiful, it's not really a house, but it's in some gardens, a beautiful building, and they've laid out rooms from the British houses thrown, th........ from the house from British houses throughout history similarly and it ends up with a house with a front room in the 90s which is my favorite room. It's a one everyone is waiting to get to basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, there's a really old four post of bed with some woven

tapestry on the side whatever that's great. Whatever that's great. Whatever whatever whatever. Whatever. What? What? What? What? What? What? VHS video recorder, come on. One of those inflatable sofas as well, those plastic inflates. That's what you want to see. Yeah, I went to the, the Brands Museum in Islington. I was like, yeah, fine, fine, fine, whatever. Colgate from the 1950s, give me 1980s boxes of ricicles. That is what I want to see. I actually think that's quitethat aren't here anymore. You'd have one room which would have an employee in who's sort of infected with sort of old medieval diseases. So sort of smallpox and things like that. Whooping cough, things you don't really see anymore.

People behind glass. Madam to swords of old diseases. You could call it the Were we mad museum? And it would be a load of like failed businesses in the 60s 70s and 80s. The sinklessy five again the airship that's great it'd be so easy to shift stuff in the shop as well there's so much easy merch you can do with t-ships with the pictures of things and little models of the crap stuff that's no longer around what you doing at the weekend taking the kids to the Were we Mad Museum? This is a good idea.

Someone's gonna do this. Someone give us some lottery money let's crack on, will you? If there's any sort of seed fund investors listening who want to get involved in the were we mad museum. I'm not sure if we were allowed to use the word mad Ellis but we'll look into that. All right then. The Museum of Failure. I prefer the original. Museum of Failure. Skulls in there as an exhibit. This is actually a great topic for the listeners to chip in with with ideas. What else could go in the Museum of Faullure? the museum of things that don't exist anymore. This but but is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is is the the the the the the, the the, thi is thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. the thi. thi. the thi. the thioomomoomoomuuoom. the the thiuuiooom. the museum the museum the museum the museum. the museum. the museum. the museum. the museum. the museum. the museum. the museum. the museum. the the museum. the the the the the the the the the th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. I I thi. I thi. I thi. I thi. thi. thi. thi. the. theooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hand up and say actually I really like the Museum of Things that don't exist anymore. But it's quite nostalgic, but maybe Failure is better.

Problem is that is almost all museums, isn't it? Correct, correct. Okay, the Museum of Failure. Okay, the Museum of Failure. There you go. That's a nice idea. That was the working title of the British Museum of Failure. If. If, if, if, if, that, that, th. That, th. That, th. That, maybe, maybe, th. That, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe. to. to. the. their, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe. their, maybe. their, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe. their. their. their. their. their. their, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe. to. to. their. to. to. their. their. But, maybe. But, maybe. their. But, maybe. But, maybe. the. But, maybe. the. the. the. the. the. the. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their. their their their their their their their their their their. ideas for things that might slot nicely into the Museum of Failure, you can get in contact with the show, you can send them in. It would be things like you'd have stuff from the set of El Dorado. Oh that's good.

Yes, oh my God. I'm thinking mini disc, the mini disc. The minidisc, I think is even better. Danny Baker a collection of laser discs which is how many referred to as Baker's Folly because you spend thousands on on laser discs. I was just about to say I know someone who really invested heavily in laser disc it was Danny Baker. Yeah it was like a 12 inch LP it was like a 12 inch record that showed films and he was like this is the future getting in quick he was utterly convinced it could not fail yeah he actually had a David

Bowie laser disc that he got signed by David Bowie and I think David Bowie and I think David Bowie went what is this? There's that man unite that grey Man United shirt that Alex Ferguson made change after one half because they said they were hard it was hard to spot one another yeah that's in there it's a great museum it's a great museum there must be big cinematic flops didn't didn't Kevin Costner's waterworld cost two hundred and five million pounds to make something ridiculous made about 30 quid at the box office that's that's showing on a loop. Finally the studio makes the money back. The museum of failure. So if you have ideas of things to pop into the museum of failure, here's how you get in contact

with the show. All right, you horrible look. Here's how you can stay in touch with the show. You can email us and hello at O What a Time.com. And you can follow us on Instagram and Twitter at Oh What a Time pod. Now clear off. Are you Dave a claims-free hybrid driving university grad who signed up online? Well Dave, this jingles for you. Who saves with TD Insurance because he's a claims for a high-driving university grad who signed up online. It's Dave. No problem. Td Insurance has over 30 ways to save on home and auto.

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Turn on confidence. Turn on confidence, turn on connections, turn on possibilities. There are hundreds of programs and services available at the Y. See what you can achieve at YMCAGTA.org. This will be the day. Shall we crack on. Well, we talk about failure, but shall we crack on to a subject which is all about success, glory and honour? It's the Olympics. Later today, I will be talking about. Basically, this really misunderstood marketing campaign from McDonald's. It's kind of fascinating. It's been seen as this incredible failure, but could be argued that's not necessarily the case. So that's what I'll be talking about. I'll be talking about a Welsh athlete known as the human torpedo. And I'm going to tell you all about right

now the ancient Olympics which every time the Olympics I get obsessed with the ancient Olympics and what went on and I'm going to tell you right now. I'm gonna begin with a quote, a body capable of enduring all efforts either of the race course or of bodily strength. This is why the athletes in the pentathlon are the most beautiful. Aristotle there talking about his favorite event, the pentathlon. Wow. I find that a particularly weird event. Yes, me too. The modern pentathlon is weird. So what are the bits? It's a swimming, running, shooting, horse riding. Yeah that is bizarre, isn't it. th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, thi. It. It. It. It. It, thi. thi. thi. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, the bits? It says swimming, running, shooting, horse riding. Yeah, that is bizarre, isn't it? It's basically the kind of stuff you needed to be a soldier about 500 years ago. Is that what it is? Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to know what it was

in the ancient Olympics? Yeah. Yes. Discus, javelin, jumping, running, and wrestling all all in the same day, and it was regarded in the ancient in the ancient in the ancient in the ancient in the ancient in the ancient in the ancient in the ancient in the ancient in the ancient day and it was regarded in the ancient world as the pinnacle of sporting achievement. The athletic tournament most likely to bring out bodily perfection and it was the one that Aristotle absolutely loved. But those five to me make more sense than the current incarnation of shooting and horse riding. It's basically, yeah, because modern pentathlon is fencing, freestyle swimming, show jumping, laser pistol shooting, cross-country running. So the old pentathlon is more, it's basically half a decathlon, isn't it?

Yes. Dacathlon, it's basically fascinating to be that good at everything. But like with the modern decathlon, you know, Daly Thompson for instance, you know, his sort of coach at school, his PE teacher has been like, okay then, go on, give the hurdles a go. All right, you're great of that. Give the hundred meters a go. All right, you're great at that.

Give Discus a go, okay. Javellin, fine, 1, 1,500 meters. Oh my God, all right, just do all of them to save us all the bother. I just Wikipedia, the modern pentathlon. On the wiki, modern pentathlon's inclusion in the Olympics has been criticized for being obscure and popular and complex. Yes, because it's a weird event. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

You're really good at riding that horse. And you're good at fencing. What kind of school did he go to, mate? Pierre de Cubertar, who was the founder of the Monolipic Games, he created the contest to simulate the experience of a 19th century cavalry soldier behind enemy lines. No! He must ride an unfamiliar horse. An unfamiliar horse! Fight enemies with the peons.

This is just two plokes. This is two plokes in a costume. Do you think it is it like initially a bit awkward when they meet the horse? Because they don't really know each other, it's just sort of... Plays it a drink. Um, you must ride an unfamiliar horse, fight enemies with a pistol and sword, swim and run to return to his own soldiers. Originally only amateur competitors, i. upper-class cavalry officers were allowed to compete

in the modern pentathlon at the Olympics. But yeah, in 1912 they were permitted to use their own horses. Wow. But they're allowed to use familiar horses? Yeah. That was the big shift was it was unfamiliar horses, then it was horses you sort of know, you've met a couple of times. Horses who's your one of your mum's friends. And then eventually actually a horse are quite close with, that's okay.

Horse, there was two years above you at school. I know of a bit. Horse, you know from tell you've seen him on stuff on tell. You're aware of, he was in like a Western once, so you recognise him from that. A horse that was on the third series of Love Island. Yeah. That could be, yeah, incrementally as you're doing better and better as you come back each year, you get to be paired up with a slightly more familiar horse. Yeah, so the next limpic, you're allowed to ride a horse that you know to say a lot to in the street, yes.

You're on nodding terms with, but you wouldn't share an apple with. Yeah. I'm back on board with this. That would be absolutely, yeah, yeah. You're ready to go back in time to 776 BC, which was the dawn of the ancient Olympics. And the story's pretty certain on that date. It's pretty well recorded, though some of those early Olympics, they were a big sensation. The Olympics then ran until 393 AD. Sports came and went and the celebrity of sport really just emerged. People were really into these games, but interestingly in the kind of in the ancient past in in Greece

there was there was the Olympics were one-quarter of the Panhelic game cycle so there were actually four festivals there was the Olympian games the Niemian games the Pythian games the Panhelic game cycle. So there were actually four festivals. There was the Olympian games, the Nemean games, the Pythian games, the Ismian games, which I am tempted to imagine as a kind of non-league game. Yeah, the Olympics is the one that seems they'd like is captured the modern sensibility. Each festival had its own ceremonial location with participants traveling from one part of Greece to another. And the the the you won the Olympics games, you got a crown slash wreath of olive leaves, which is nice. In the Niemian games, you got wild celery leaves from Argos. Right off the shop in the Museum of Failure. From Argos. I think I would have remembered Sticks of Celery in the catalogue which I would frequently

sell to study. Yeah, I used to frequently study the others car. What a wonderful thing, bring that back. Joyous times of the child, leafing through that. It's not 1,300 pages long. I loved it, but the toy section, was the Walkman section. Brilliant. The Pythian games you'd get a crown of laurel leaves and Ismian games you get a crown of pine leaves.

So in the ancient Olympics, all sorts of sports were played and they're definitely, you can see there's echoes in the model Olympics. So you've got classic events, I would describe as classic events, athletics, boxing, wrestling. And you had athletes back in the ancient games that would specialize in particular categories of sport as they do today. They had boxing, so you, interesting to be boxing, no weight, no weight. So it's, oh no.

It's Boxer A versus Boxer B happens to be a flyweight, and Boxer B is a heavyweight, hey, they're going to go at it. So these are, are, are, are, are, are, are, are, are, are these are, are these are these are these are these are these are these are these are these are these are thatletletletletletletletletletletletletletletletletletletletletletletletletletletlete, are that at thatatatatatat, are that, are thatlip at thatatat, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, and that, that, that, that, thataaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, thatlia, thatliaer B is a heavyweight, hey, they're going to go at it. So these are these sort of random draws and you're like, you just don't know who you're going to be paired up with and you could easily be paired up with. Yeah, yeah, if there's a massive bloke there, he is going to be allowed to smash you about. There are so many problems with that. Yes. And there's there there's there's there's there's there's their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. tho the. thrown. the. tho tho tho tho tho th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. to. the the the the the. the. the. much rounds and there's not really a ring, basically you would continue to fight until one of you was knocked out or surrendered. That's how boxing worked. It was a bit sort of like school lunch times, basically. People gathering around yelling, fight, fight, fight, fight.

Exactly that. The fear in that, knowing that you could, if you let's say you're a flyweight, because surely that's just like a risk of death isn't it? I'd as you know far more about boxing than I do But yeah, what can you do is a as a lightweight boxer against a heavyweight? Could you hurt them? I don't know I don't really know enough about it? Shit yourself. Right okay Which will make you even lighter? The last thing you need Jimmy while the boxer he was th boxerweight or a featherweight, and he would fight in boxing pools against big farmers. He was a really, really skilled boxer. Yeah. I mean people talk about him still as one of the best pump-bum boxes ever. The problem is, at an Olympic level, they're all going to know how to box. Yeah. It's quite a militaristic society, isn't it? Don't forget. As we learn in our Sparta episode, a lot of them are learning to how to fight from birth.

Yeah, so you're not fighting some big lumbering farmer who eats too many fright. It's... Is that a few bites and fancy chances chances of chances? Probably someone who's as good as boxing as you are, much, much bigger. It's such a disadvantage. Yeah. Wow, that's amazing, Chris. They. That. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. th. th. So, so th. So, so th, so th. So, so you th. So, so you th. So, so you th. So, so you the the the the th. So, so th. So, so th. So, so th. So, so th. So, so th. So, so th. So, so th. So, so, so, so, so, so, th. So, the the th. So, th. the the th. th. th. th. the the thi. the thi. the the the thi. the the the the the thi. You're not the the the the the the the the thi. th equestrian events as well, so you had chariot racing and horse riding, but with horse riding, there was a bit of a caveat, if you were the Victoria's rider, you didn't get the garland of victory, it went to the owner of the horse. And a consequence of that rule which meant that some of the first equestrian champions were in fact women because women owned the horses. So a Spartan princess called Siniska won some of the first races in the Olympics of 396 BC and then won a second time four years later.

And a lot of these records are recorded so it's great you can actually go back and see who was winning these ancient Olympics. Does it mention if these jockeys were familiar with the horses they were riding or or they once again sort of unfamiliar horses. No one bothered to tap that into a stone tablet sadly. Yeah so wrestling is just so brutal. There's as you can imagine hardly any rules in place. You could break opponent's fingers and that used to happen quite a lot. They'd grab a hand and just like snap bones. Oh. Or the few rules were no biting, no gouging and you're not allowed to grab at genitalia... th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thiole thi thate thiole thiole thoom- thoom- thoom- thoom- thoom- tho- tho- thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thia th. No th. No th. No th. No th. No th. No th. No th. No th. No th. No th. No th. No th. No thi the thi the thi their their thi to to toe toe toe toe toea toea toea toea toea toea toea toea toea toea toe toe the gouging and you're not allowed to grab at

genitalia. But everything else you find. Well that's something. The ones that people were most into, the headline events at Olympia, were running, pentathlon and pancreation. What's pancreation? And it was painting pancreation that you got the biggest start. So pancreation was a sport which combined boxing and wrestling and and thing that. thin tho th th th th th th th th th th th th th that that that that that that that that that tho that that that that tho- that tho-out tho-out tho-out tho-out tho-out tho-out tho-out tho-out thate tho-n tho-n tho- tho- tho- thal thal thal thal thal thal to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to was painting pancreation that you got the biggest stars. What is that? So pancreation was a sport which combined boxing and wrestling in one incredibly brutal contest and these were it was kind of known as the the heavy events. Right. So it's introduced in 648 BC and was regarded by some such as the poet Xenophannus, as a new and terrible contest. But many others thought it was, this is the most thrilling thing. I feel like UFC.

So anything went, yeah, punches, kicks, locks and so forth were allowed. And it is, it seemed very similar to modern kind of mixed martial arts. And again, no gouging, no biting, and but quite often you have umpires on the side like trying to insist on broad kind of fair play. So by the way, there's little to no fair play being refereed there, is there? This is ancient Greece. A time of military strength and sort of do or die attitude. There's just basically anything goes, I'm imagining. Have you ever seen any footage of UFC one?

No. The first UFC? Yes. What's it like? Oh my God. Again, no weight classes. Yeah, and they all do a combination of different martial arts and sort of style has evolved to be good up. But in those days it was, okay, who is the hardest? Is it a boxer? Is it a karate black belt? Is it a suma wrestler? Is a the the their wrestler, a thler, a thler, a thler, a thler, a thler, a thler, a thler, a thler, a thler, a thler, a thler, a thier, a thian, a thian, a thian, a thian, a thian, is, is, a, a thian, thian, thian, thian, thian, thian, thian, thian, thian, thian, thian, thian, thian, thian, thian, thian, thian, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. Yeah, th. Yeah, th. Yeah, th. Yeah, th. Yeah, th. Yeah, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, they, their, they, they, they, their, they. their, their, their, their, their, It was just all the different kinds of fighting. Wow. In the first, in the first boat, a big sumo wrestler basically gets all of the teeth in his mouth sort of kicked out of his mouth. It's horrific. Right, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. There's a documentary about it, yeah. The guy talks about being a kid and his dad thinking that it was it would be the same as kind of like WWF where it'd be kind of professional wrestling where it's all it's all fake yeah and that that bout you describe Elle is the first bout the sumo wrestler versus the young kind of like he's a kickboxer yeah he's really agile and straight where she say he boots him full face the summer he boots him right in his mouth, like full force. And this author this article talks about his dad just going, okay it's real.

Yeah. Right, turn it off. Turn it off. Where's the remote? Where's the remote? Where's the remote? Yeah. The worst thing about that event at the ancient Olympics is if something went wrong so you brought your leg badly. The lack of pain relief would really come back to haunt you, wouldn't it? You'd be lying there, screaming in pain, think to yourself, I wish it was 2,000 years in the future where at least they'd have morphine. I went to the Natural History Museum and I saw an iguandon, the dinosaur, the skeleton of an iguan don, the dinosaur, the dinosaur, the dinosaur, the dinosaur, the dinosaur, the dinosaur, the dinosaur, the dinosaur, the dinosaur, the dinosaur, the dinosaur, the dinosaur, the dinosaur, the dinosaur, the dinosaur, the skeleton of an iguanodon, the dinosaur, who had broken his hip. Right. His hip had set really badly. So he would have been in pain for the rest of his life. And I was just trying to imagine this iguanadon, sort of a bad hip. Yeah. Trying to imagine that? You're sort of in the Olympics and I don't know.

Even like a dislocated shoulder, it'd be awful, isn't it? Please think about how you're their their their the think about how you're going to do that. You don't get to retire as an iguanidon either. You don't just sort of get to, if you hit the nose, well, I'm just going to keep that now and move into an iguanadon home with other sort of old ig lot of savings. Well, speaking of sustaining injuries and pancreation, this is something I discovered. There was a pancreation fighter named Arichion of Figlia, and he won the pancreation competition at the Olympic Games, despite being dead. His opponent had locked him in a chokehold, and Eurycion was trying to loosen it, and he broke, as he was losing it broke his opponent's toe, some record say it was his ankle. The opponent nearly passed out

from pain and just submitted the referee went to raise Aretcheon's hand and discovered that he had died in the chokehold. No! And his body was then crowned with the olive wreath and he was returned to Phelia as the conquering hero despite the fact he was dead. Wow. But the first champion of Pancreatian was Ligdamas of Syracuse on the island of Sicily, whose most famous characteristics, lots of talk of this, with the fact he had massive feet. Huge feet. But having like big size was always an advantage in Pancration because Pancration translates as as all all all all But I'll end on this. So like the modern Olympics, the atmosphere in the stadiums is what really makes it and that was just the case, it was exactly the case in the ancient games.

But interestingly the ancient games, only men, boys and unmarried women were banned for fear of jealousy. And the reason for that is this, you're talking about earlier everyone wearing the same dress at the Olympic Games or wearing the same dress for like the pentathlon, they all wore the same dress largely throughout the ancient Olympics which was nothing. Oh, a lot of the athletes were naked which is why married women were barred. You're not allowed to see these fantastic looking men who were competing. Well, well, well. So a lot of the, all the, all the pancreation, all of that is carried out in the nude. There was a couple of events that that had clothing, but it was mainly armor, so like chariot racing, and then also in the

hoppedromous, which is like a race that you run. the the their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, their, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all.. All, all, all, all, all. All, all. All, all. All, all that you run wearing armour, you were allowed to some armor then, but the rest of everyone else is nude. So, consequently, the big sex symbols of the age were the Olympic stars. I shouldn't break in your uncle naked. But a bloody penance on me before the ambulance arrives. All right, that's it for part one. If you want part two right now, you can become an O-Water Time full-timer and you also get access to bonus episodes and we're doing a couple of episodes every month. And there's a load of bonus episodes there already.

You can get stuck into like heroes, gifts, sex, drugs and rock and roll, protests, medieval sex, US sports in the UK, and extended episodes where we deal with your letters. To get all that, go to O'Watertime.com for all your options. Otherwise, we'll see it tomorrow for part two. Bye. I think the